ST. GEORGE, Utah – The Cougars can take their winning ways and rest up for over the Christmas break
Azusa Pacific won their third straight game to start PacWest play with a 93-69 decision against Dixie State. The Cougars remain undefeated against their foes from southern Utah in seven all-time meetings.
"I thought we did a really good job of getting everyone involved in our offense tonight. We really talk about distributing the ball and keeping our offense as balanced as possible," said head coach T.J. Hardeman. "I thought as the game progressed we really wore them down. They are a good team but we really did a lot of things well today."
The 93 point total is the most for a Cougars squad since the 2012-13 season when they put 95 on the scoreboard against Chaminade.
The 25th ranked Cougars will take the next 16 days off until their Jan. 5 contest at league newcomer Concordia. The Cougars starting five was on-point as they provided a huge scoring punch as each of them scored in double figures. As a team the Cougars assisted on 24 of their 40 made field goals.
Kelly Hardeman touted her fifth straight double-double with a 20-point, 12-rebound afternoon. The senior also dished out five assists. Miriam Zabinsky was the squad's second leading scorer as she hit a team high four three-pointers en route to a 18-point afternoon
Cydnie Jones, once again, showed up in all categories of the boxscore. The point guard scored 13 points, dished out seven assists and swiped three steals. Maggie Dumphy provided a similar effort with her 16-point, eight-rebound, five-block shot effort. Dumphy missed just three of her 10 field goal attempts. Allison Greene rounded out the double figure scorers with 10 points in 29 minutes.
The game started at a fast clip as the teams combined to score 38 points in the opening 10 minutes as Azusa Pacific held a 21-17 edge at the end of the first quarter. The Cougars never trailed the rest of the game. The Red Storm got as close as four points while Azusa Pacific grew their lead to as large as 12 points in the second quarter. Heading into the locker room the Cougars held a 48-38 lead.
During the opening two quarters the Cougars offense hit 52.5 percent (21-for-40) of their shots from the field to aid in the advantage.
Coming out of the break, Azusa Pacific put to rest any hopes of a home team comeback as they start the third quarter on a 15-5 scoring spurt. Dixie State never got their deficit beneath double figures.
For the second time this season the Cougars scored at least 20 points in each of the four quarters. Azusa Pacific previously accomplished the feat against Western Washington.
